Friday, July 4, 2014

Well, I know someone who’s not invited to this year’s White House 4th of July BBQ:

Consider this my contribution to your Independence Day celebration; somebody else can bring the baked beans this year. It’s obvious that Joanie is suicidal, most likely due to one too many face lifts. Butt as long as I’m covering things that are not true, I would like to point out that the rumor circulating about Big Guy visiting a Mosque on the 4th are likewise not true. As they say, good satire contains an element of truth, and great satire is totally believable.

Now, back to your holiday preparations. Let’s get those beans in the oven and that potato salad made before heading out for the pancake breakfast, the 4th of July parade, the picnic at the lake and this evening’s fireworks display. Just remember the holiday marks the day our Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in 1776.

At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin was queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation. In the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention, a lady asked Dr. Franklin “Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy.” Franklin replied, “A republic . . . if you can keep it.”

So fly your stars and stripes with pride today; despite our current state of disrepair, despite polls to the contrary, America is still the greatest experiment in human history. And it is up to us, the true patriots, to reclaim it and nurse it back to health. Next opportunity: November 4, 2014.

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name -- liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names --liberty and tyranny. – Abraham Lincoln